Rentokil shares plunge 30 per cent

Pest control firm Rentokil Initial's shares plummeted 30.3 per cent yesterday following the battered services firm's fourth profits warning in just seven months. Full-year profits are now expected to be £35m lower after sales declined in its troubled delivery firm City Link.

Rentokil's new chief executive Alan Brown warned that it could be three years before some of the group's businesses get back on track. Brown blamed his predecessors for the continuing difficulties in a number of Rentokil's businesses, "virtually all of which originate from poorly executed restructuring or acquisition-integration programmes initiated between 2005 and 2007".